Nightmare
by Letthepickaxedothetalking
Summary: Katara has a wicked nightmare. while the Gaang tries to comfort her, they all recount their horrific nightmares and find out that there might be a connection.


Nightmare

Katara bolted from her deep sleep. She shook her head trying to clear the sleepy fog from her brain. She felt little beads on her forehead with one sliding down her olive skin. In one fell swoop, she bent the sweat from her forehead and took a good look around the campsite. Zuko was fast asleep on Appa, this was the first time Appa let Zuko sleep on him. The lovable beast didn't trust Zuko at first even after Zuko had set him free and was the first to accept him into the group. This was Appa's way of trusting the Fire Prince and things were going smoothly.

She then turned her gaze towards Sokka and Toph. Every night, it was a competition between the two as to who can snore the loudest. Surprisingly Toph can hold her own against Sokka, who has on more than one occasion, awoken Katara and Aang with his snoring.

She looked towards Aang last and smiled with a small blush forming on her cheeks. He was in his usual place on Appa's tail with Momo curled up next to him. He looked so peaceful snoring away, probably having sweet dreams. Looking at everyone had made her sleepy again, completely forgetting why she had bolted awake to begin with. Katara yawned, sleep starting to completely take over, she gave one last look at Aang and laid her head on the pillow, a small smile creeping on her face as she drifted off to sleep.

Katara awoke again this time letting out a piercing loud scream. Aang, Zuko and Sokka jumped to their feet. There was a loud "OWWW" coming from where Toph was situated as she had hit her head on her Earth Tent. Aang sleepily clutched at his glider, same with Sokka clutching his boomerang. Zuko had shot out a fireball from his palms which happen to hit the nearby camp fire, sending it ablaze.

"Who screamed? " Sokka said sleepily

"I did" Katara's voice was small and choked. Aang looked over and saw that tears were streaming down her face. He quickly rushed over, followed by Sokka, Zuko and Toph, who finally can out from her Earth Tent rubbing her sore head.

"What Happened!?" Aang's voice was filled with confusion and a tinge of fear as he thought, "What could be bad enough to make Katara scream in the dead of night"

"Did you see a Fire Nation soldier, or an animal that scared you?" Sokka chimed in sound just as confused as Aang.

"No" Katara said hanging her head down, she could feel the salty tears drying on her face, "I had a very bad dream."

"A bad dream!" Toph exclaimed, "That's why you woke everyone up with a scream?"

"Yes" she could feel the tears starting to come again.

"I'm going back to bed" Toph gave a shrug of her shoulders and started walking towards her Earth Tent. Aang moved towards Katara and sat down beside her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. That's all Katara could do to resist crying again, the tears coming in spurts and sobs heaving themselves from her throat. Aang wrapped his arms around her in a hug and she cried loudly into his chest.

"Toph, come back here, can't you see that Katara is in bad shape right now" Aang shouted to the Earthbender. Toph stopped and sighed, she knew that this would be another long night and went with it.

"Lets go by the fire" Zuko suggested, "it will help keep everyone warm."

Sokka and Zuko sat next to each other with the Fire Prince to Sokka's left and Toph plopped down to Sokka's right side. Aang, still holding a crying Katara, sat on the other side of fire.

After a small silence, Sokka spoke up, "Katara would you want to tell us what happened in your dream?" All eyes were fixed onto Katara and she felt rough, calloused finger tips on her eyes, wiping away the tears.

"Well" Katara said through the few remaining tears, "I'm not sure where to start" Katara looked down, suddenly feeling nervous, when she felt a hand on her other shoulder.

"Its okay" Aang said, "Start from where you remember"

Katara took a deep breath and began, "the earliest part of the dream I can remember is being at Eastern Air Temple", her voice trailed off into a reminisce about the dream.

They were at the Eastern Air Temple; Sokka was trying to find something to do and Aang was meditating. Katara was searching around the temple and stumbled upon a long door.

She called over, "Hey everyone, look what I found" Aang broke his Lotus position and Sokka dropped the spear he was sharpening. They went over to the door and saw it had strange markings on it, almost as if they were locks.

Aang knew right away what the markings were, "this is an old Air Temple door, and the only way to get in is to Airbend"

Everyone stepped back when Aang got in his stance, with one swift motion Aang airbent a current that travelled up the long pipes, turning the locks on the door to the unlocked position. The door opened up and in front of them was darkness.

They walked in and the door slammed shut. They couldn't see each other in the pitch black but everyone had looks for confusion and fear on their faces. Katara backed up until she felt something warm on her elbow. She turned around and saw her mother standing, looking like the day she passed. She was in her blue parka with white fur lined around the edges.

Katara's cheeks were immediately with tears as she ran towards her mother. She wrapped her in a big embrace and she felt something pat her back. She looked up and her face instantly turned to a look of horror. Instead of her mother, it was huge creature, black and moving with long slender tendrils, one of them touching Katara's shirt. She started to back away slowly out of fear, never losing her sight on the horrible monster.

She ended up in the center of the room where called out, "Aang, Sokka!" they popped out from the darkness and backed into Katara. Katara finally broke her sight from the monster and turned to look at her friends when gasped, her friends had turned into more of the same looking creature. She saw all of them coming from all sides, closing in almost suffocating her. She opens her mouth…

"That's when I must have screamed in real life, waking everyone up" Katara said quietly finishing her dream.

Everyone was looking at her with stunned expressions. Aang was the first to speak up, "that was some scary dream, its going to be okay Katara" her rubbed her shoulders which subconsciously Katara loved when he did that. Everyone else muttered in agreement except for Zuko.

"You aren't the only one who had a dream like that" Zuko said rather loudly, everyone turned at looked him with mild confusion, "The day I asked to join the group and you guys rejected me at first, I made myself a camp not too far away."

Zuko continued, "This was before Toph went to come see me and burning her feet by accident" Toph stuck her tongue out at Zuko, never forgetting that he burned her feet even if it was accidental.

"When I was sleeping in my open tent, I was having a dream" The Fire Prince's voice went low, "I could never forget this dream"

Sokka turned to Zuko and said, "Tell us what happened Zuko"


End file.
